Austin, Texas – Do It Yourself!
Me, modeling my latest wearable circuit project
Welcome to ATX DIY’s home on the web. ATX DIY encompasses many things, and is most of all, a work in progress, but I’ll try to explain my vision for it to the best of my abilities. I guess I’ll start with a little background about who I am and what DIY means to me. I’m a twenty-something (Northern!) California girl who moved to Austin, Texas in the summer of 2006. I’ve always enjoyed crafts and increasingly, my passion for making stuff has (happily) taken over most aspects of my life. I am a big believer in the diy ethos and feel that, for me, making things has tangibly improved my life.
I came up with the moniker ATX DIY as an umbrella term to address the myriad do-it-ourselves projects and interests I have and share with my fantastic boyfriend Bug, and countless friends and acquaintances. ATX DIY is headquartered here on the web and at our house. My big goals for the site and our happy home involve collaboration between fellow creatives, inspiration (both from and for me!), documentation of our busy DIY lives, and many more specific, tangible goals that I’ll bore you with in future posts.
A short disclaimer: My biggest issue with the term DIY is that “yourself” implies that “doing it” has to be done alone. We all know it’s more fun with friends! Naughty innuendo aside, I really think that the best artists, creatives, and thinkers are not cultivated in exclusion and I do always have more fun with friends. Many of the diy pursuits that appeal to me are somewhat independent ventures, but are almost always enhanced when shared with others in some form or another. So, for clarity’s sake, let’s all collectively assume that “do it yourself” can also refer to “do it ourselves”.
For now, here’s an incomplete list of the diy pursuits that currently occupy my life:
- sewing (mostly small scale projects, curtains, baby blankets, etc.)
- cooking (vegetarian food, for the most part)
- gardening (fresh fruits, veggies, and herbs grown in our front yard)
- screenprinting (we’re currently building a studio in our garage)
- chicken raising (in our backyard – for eggs!)
- knitting (just getting the hang of basic patterns)
- framing (yep, putting art in frames, perhaps my most money-saving DIY skill)
- fine art (some painting, drawing, textile arts, etc. although I wouldn’t call it a strong point)
- homebrew (yep, making beer, mostly as brewmaster Bug’s assistant)
- wearable circuits (just venturing into the world of sewable circuitry)
- writing (this blog, and others)
- canning (so far just lots of jam and pasta sauce, but I can’t wait to make my own pickles!)
- general home improvement projects
